


the lucky ones

by elizabethgetout



Category: Dream Team | Dream George and SapNap
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Fluff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Violence, basically if manhunt and hunger games had a child, mild themes of manipulation, seperated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29091153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethgetout/pseuds/elizabethgetout
Summary: Throughout George's life there've only been two constants; His best friend, Sapnap, who's been at his side through thick and thin, and the maze that terrifies him and sends shivers down his spine. He's worked hard to upkeep the life him and Sapnap have made for themselves in this desolate and cruel world, but it's all going to come to an end soon.So when George finally steps away from the only life he's ever known, swearing to save his best friend, he may just find more than his best friend. Strange new worlds, new friends, love, and dangerous beasts that could tear him apart at any moment. George has never been lucky, and he knows for a fact that won't change anytime soon.--Or: George has to face his fears to save his best friend from a gruesome death, and meets new friends inside of a dangerous maze that could kill him at any second.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	1. one - timer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George's life is anything but normal, but at least he's got Sapnap beside him. He's not lucky in the slightest, but surely he's not unlucky enough to lose his best friend. Right?

I’m running through the forest, leaves and grass kicking up as my boots are caked in mud. My heart beats rapidly in my chest, my eyes scanning my dark surroundings. I shakily reach up to my head, pulling my night vision goggles down over my eyes. I fumble and click them on, and they boot up in a couple seconds, showing my surroundings in dark shades of blue, conveniently one of the only colors I can see.

I huff to myself, searching for a place to hide, or an escape route from my hunter. I can hear him running behind me, his feet snapping branches under his wake, not caring about being stealthy now that I know he’s chasing me. I grumble to myself, knowing what he’ll do when he catches up to me.

I try to will my legs to go faster, knowing since he’s taller than me he’s got longer legs, therefore he’ll be faster than me. I try to run, but my legs are already tired from our earlier hunts. I’m tired and feel like slowing down, but I know I can’t.

It sounds like he’s getting closer, and I curse myself for letting him catch up. Not fair, he knows he’s better at this than me.

I risk a glance behind me, but it’s a mistake. I see him lunging at me, and I let out a shriek as his body barrels into mine, knocking us both to the forest floor. My back hits the ground with a thud, my head hitting the dirty forest floor and pain coursing through my body. I wince as I pull my goggles off, looking at my hunter.

He giggles maniacally to himself, pushing his dark hair out of his face, tucking some strands behind the bandana on his head. “I gotcha, Georgie!” He says in a sing-song voice, bragging about his win. I roll my eyes, trying to push him off of me.

“Yeah yeah, you always do when I’m the runner.” I answer as he gets off of me, standing up and offering me his hand. I reluctantly take it, and he pulls me to my feet.

“I’m just better than you. You should know this by now, Georgie.” He answers, breathing hard from all the running we just did.

“Would you stop it with that nickname?’ I grumble, brushing foliage off my clothes and wincing at the spots on my shirt and pants that are now caked in mud and dirt.

“But it’s so cute, it fits you.” He says, slinging an arm over my shoulder. Even though he just chased me through the forest and is currently making fun of me, the contact is more than welcome. In this world, he’s as close I’ll get to a friend. After all, you can’t trust anyone, not even yourself.

“I’m not cute.” I grumble, the two of us beginning to walk now.

“Yes you are.” He retorts with a giggle.

I huff, fiddling with my night vision goggles, making sure he didn’t break them. “And why’s that?”

He giggles once more, obviously finding himself very funny. “Because you’re short.” He ‘boops’ my nose, and I grumble and feel my face flush from embarrassment.

“I will have you know I am of average height.” I tell him, and this feels like a conversation we’ve had before. “Now can we please head back now? You know what’s happening tomorrow.”

He waves me off. “Sure, sure. Don’t worry, I know exactly where we are.”

I frown at him. “If you’ve gotten us lost, I will personally kill you.” I deadpan. He bursts out into laughter as he leads us in the direction back towards the town.

Eventually we break the treeline and the village comes into view. Rickety hand-built buildings line the cobblestone streets, casting shadows over the roads that are barely lit by the torches spanning the length of the walkways. The sky is darkened above us, and if I’m guessing I’d assume it’s sometime around midnight. On a normal day no one would be walking the streets, but tonight’s different. We all know what’s happening in the morning, so it’s normal for no one to be able to sleep.

The stage in town square is being prepped for what’s going down in the morning, the same thing that happens every first day of every month. In only six hours the town square will be filled with young adults, all eagerly waiting and praying they don’t hear their names being called by the people on stage.

He’s gone silent beside me as we walk into town, both of us falling silent at the image of the stage being prepared. I’ve been to many of the selections, but this will be his third one. I just pray tomorrow won’t bring sadness and despair, and we’ll be lucky and neither of our names will be called. But then again, the universe works in weird ways, and I can’t ignore the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, something telling me something bad is going to happen tomorrow.

But I shake off the feeling. We silently walk to our shared estay, a small apartment on the second floor overlooking the street. It’s not particularly nice, neither of us being able to afford a house on the richer side of the town, where the wealthy don’t have to worry about selection. They’ve never had to worry about selection a single day in their lives. Of course their names aren’t in the drawing, they practically run the whole show. They’re the ones who decided we needed to appease the gods who abandoned us so long ago. I have no pity for them.

Once inside our home, we wordlessly get ready for sleep, even though we both know that there’s no way either of us are sleeping tonight. It’s always like this the night before the first. Even before his name was in the drawing, neither of us could sleep, and tonight will be no different. 

I’m sitting on my bed, staring at the wall as paranoid thoughts run rampant through my head. But I won’t give into the dark thoughts.

“Hey George?”

I hum, turning to him. “Yes, Sapnap?”

He fiddles with his cotton bedsheets, avoiding my gaze. “You’re not going to get picked tomorrow, right?” He looks up at me, the shift of mood in our conversation evident.

I shake my head. “No, I’m not. You’re not going to get picked tomorrow, are you?” I ask him. We’ve had this conversation twice before.

He smiles and shakes his head. “No I won’t.”

I exhale, my gaze softening at him. Even though we have no control over who gets picked, these simple conversations give me more assurance than a random name selector ever will.

“Alright. Now, let’s try and get some rest. Tomorrow’s a big day.” He nods, and we both pull the thin blankets over ourselves, and try to rest, although we both know sleep will never come for us.

* * *

By sunrise the streets are already crowded. People mindlessly milling about trying to clear their minds of the event taking place soon, looking for anything that can distract them from the dread and paranoia that always follows as the day presses on.

Sapnap sticks close to me as we navigate the crowded streets. There’s a solemn melancholy in the air, and even though the streets are filled with practically every one in the town, no one is speaking besides a simple ‘thank you’ or ‘excuse me’. It’s so pitiful, how we’re all reduced to this state, fearing what is coming later today, all hyper aware that the fact all this pain is being caused by the wealthy.

As we make our way through the crowd, trying to get to the bakery, I sneer as I’m pushed aside. I regain my balance in the crowded streets to see two teenagers running through the square, chasing each other, their joyful laughter echoing against the tall buildings. Their joy will eventually leave them, once they get old enough to be put in the drawing. Oh how naive children are, here, blissfully unaware of the fate that awaits them as soon as their 21st birthday rolls around. I’d give anything to remember how it felt to be like that, when I was young and naive, not knowing of all the horrors that lie just behind the towering walls just beyond the town square. I miss the days when my mother would sing me to sleep, telling me stories of great adventurers and monsters I didn’t think were real.

“Watch where you’re going!” Sapnap calls after the two kids, but his words fall on deaf ears, the two boys continuing to run through the crowds of people, dodging and weaving and ignoring anyone who tells them to stop their shenanigans. At least let them be kids for a little while.

“Lucky little jerks.” I mutter to myself, pulling Sapnap behind me as a pathway opens up to the bakery. I make a beeline for the stall, and we get to the counter just in time. The smell of freshly baked bread fills my senses, offering me a small distraction. Flour and sugar lightly dust the counter, and inside the small shop stovetops blaze to life.

A girl inside gracefully floats over to the counter, her blonde hair loosely pulled back into a ponytail, flour stuck to her face and in his eyelashes. She offers us a friendly smile, recognizing us as some of her regulars.

“Good morning boys!” She greets us, dusting off her apron as she walks over to tend to us.

“Morning, Niki.” Sapnap greets, leaning on the counter to talk to the baker.

“Will it be the usual?” She asks, stepping to the side so we can eye the tray of baked goods that her apprentice just pulled from the oven.

“Yep.” I tell her, pulling the leather pouch containing my money off of my belt and undoing the drawstring cord. She turns back to the other person inside her bakery.

“Ranboo, one loaf of cinnamon bread and one loaf of sourdough!” The brunette nods and quickly gathers up two loaves of bread, Niki turning back to face us.

“How’s he been working out for you?” I ask, making small talk while Niki’s new employee works on getting our baked goods ready.

“Ranboo is really good at his job, I think I’ll keep him around for a little while.” Niki says a bit quieter so the boy in the back won’t hear her.

“That’s good, especially after…” Sapnap says, eventually trailing off, the light air of the room suddenly being sucked out. “Y’know.”

Niki nods, eyes glazing over as she stares over my shoulder. Niki’s business partner was selected only three months ago, leaving Niki all alone to tend to the shop. Ever since he left Niki’s been trying to find a new apprentice, and this new Ranboo kid seems to be doing the job. Niki and Ranboo are both lucky, neither of them old enough to be put into the drawing yet.

“It’s fine, he wouldn’t want us to be moping about over him.” Niki says suddenly, dragging all three of us back to the present. Sapnap and I nod in agreement, as Ranboo walks over and places the two loaves of bread, neatly wrapped up for us.

I drop the payment into Niki’s hands and Sapnap and I walk off with our bounty. We quickly tear off some of the sweet bread, finding a place to stop and eat, trying to calm our nerves. I look up and watch the sun in the sky, watching as it slowly but surely gets to the same spot in the sky, the same spot where the bell rings out and we’re all called to town square.

I’m suddenly not hungry anymore, slipping the bread away into my bag. Sapnap does the same, having only taken a couple bites of the bread. I cross my arms, leaning against the wall behind me as I watch the other inhabitants of the village pass by. I wonder who will be picked today. Maybe the boy across the street trying to swindle with the purple haired girl into going on a date with him. Maybe the girl who’s stopped to fix her fake eyelashes in a shop window. Maybe the boy leaned up against the alleyway just next to us, sharpening his knife.

I stand up, recognizing Skeppy to be the one in the alleyway. “Skeppy.” I say, greeting him. He stops sharpening his knife and looks up at Sapnap and I, not greeting us, and instead looking back to his knife.

“Nervous for today?” Sapnap asks, trying to make small talk to calm our nerves.

Skeppy rolls his eyes, sheathing his knife. “Nope.” He answers plainly. “Do you guys need something from me?”

“Just wanted to say hi.” I answer, a bit frustrated at how rude he is. Skeppy is one of the reasons you can’t trust people around here. Any time you’re walking around the streets, better keep a close eye on your belongings, especially your money. People are quick with their hands around here, your money can be gone within the blink of an eye. I’ve personally seen Skeppy be the culprit to many robberies around here.

Skeppy raises an eyebrow at me, crossing his arms. “I’m not your friend, I don’t see why you make it your mission to talk to me.”

Honestly, I only really talk to Skeppy because I feel bad for him. He’s always sulking and scowling, he never talks to anyone, and he’s a huge pickpocket. No one really knows his motive for any of the wicked things he does, leading many people to dislike him. But I feel bad for him. This cruel world has hardened all of us, but Skeppy more than some others. There’s obviously something else that lead him to be the way he is.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be, someone to steal from?” Sapnap sneers, crossing his arms back at Skeppy. Skeppy rolls his eyes once more, and takes a couple steps towards us. 

“In case you haven’t noticed, today’s the selection. Soon enough that town square is going to be filled with people anxiously waiting to see if their name is called and they’d be led to their demise. And you of all people should know, that all three of us are on the fucking chopping block.” Skeppy sneers, getting close to Sapnap and practically spitting in his face. “Better prepare yourself, never know when they’re gonna call your name and send you to your death.”

Sapnap is frozen in shock as Skeppy walks off without a goodbye. I put a hand on Sapnap’s shoulder, making him jump slightly. He’s obviously shaken by Skeppy’s words.

“Hey, don’t listen to him. Everything’s gonna be fine, I’m sure of it.” I tell him, giving him a smile, which he quickly returns.

Suddenly the sound of a bell resounds through the streets, everyone freezing as the bell shakes us to our cores, sending shivers down our spines. Skeppy suddenly turns to face the end of the street, where our final destination is.

“Ah, the execution bell.” He says, eyes traveling towards town square, people beginning to shuffle in that direction. He turns to us with a wicked smirk, eyes devoid of any emotion. “Let’s see who the lucky person is today.”

He stalks off towards town square. Sapnap swallows hard beside me, and I lace my fingers through his before we walk off together towards town square.

It’s obvious the universe doesn’t favor me, I’ve never been lucky once in my entire life. I just pray the universe will take pity on me, just for one day. But I’ll never be that lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> word count: 2636 words


	2. two - selection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the selection, and along with the rest of the town, George and Sapnap pray that they won't hear either of their names being called.

The town square is practically packed by the time we get there. People between the ages of twenty-one to twenty-six are filling in, joining the crowd in the middle, all surrounding the stage. Those who are safe from the selection—the lucky ones—stand off to the side, showing a divide between those on the chopping block and those who don’t have to worry about being sent to their death today.

On the brick stage stands two people. The first one is a shorter man with short blonde hair and a green and white striped bucket cap. For being one of the wealthiest men in town, he sure does have a strange sense of fashion. I don’t think he’s ever been seen without the same sandals he’s donning right now. The man, Phil, practically runs the whole thing. It’s obvious he’s not fond of doing it, but it’s been passed down through his family, so he’s practically forced into doing it. He’s talking to the only other person on stage, a tall man with curly brown hair. I believe that’s his eldest son, Wilbur. Wilbur’s a good guy, but some part of me still resents him. He’s in the age range to be in the selection, but of course since he belongs to a wealthy family he doesn’t have to worry about it. Eventually after Phil retires from his job being the selector, it will become Wilbur’s job. I wonder if the third of the trio, Tommy, is anywhere around, but since he’s not old enough to be put in the selection he’s probably off running around with that Tubbo boy he’s fond of.

Sapnap and I find a spot to watch, him still clutching my hand tightly. After a few minutes when people have stopped funneling into the square, Phil walks up to the microphone stand, his son standing tall behind him. Phil taps the microphone a couple times to make sure it’s working, then clears his throat and looks down to the cards he’s supposed to read off.

“Good morning everyone, and welcome to selection day.” He starts off, his heavily accented voice filling the square. Everyone’s holding their breath, even though Phil’s gotta go through the whole spiel before actually getting to the actual selection.

“As you all know by now, today, on the first of March, we’ll be selecting one person between the age of twenty-one and twenty-six to go into the maze.” He looks up and gestures to the giant towering walls. Even though I feel sick every time I look at them, I turn anyways, everyone turning to stare.

The giant granite walls stretch miles into the sky, and span for who knows how long lengthwise. They stand ominously, unmoving. I feel sick anytime I look at them, looking at the maze. Knowing just how many people have lost their lives, thinking back on all the people I know who have been thrown into the maze to die. Too many people, too young, with their entire lives ahead of them, being carelessly thrown into the maze because the wealthy think we have to offer a sacrifice to their horrible death game. I’ve heard the alleged tales about the monsters that lurk within, some that can kill just by making eye contact with you.

I shiver at the thought, finally tearing my eyes away when Phil resumes his speech that I’ve heard too many times before, practically having it etched permanently into my memory.

“All eligible persons will have their names in the drawing. The drawing is fair, with every person’s name only entered once. It’s a complete game of chance, no one person’s odds being higher than their neighbor’s.” He recites, sighing heavily at the end of his sentence.

“Our hearts go out to those selected, chosen to go in and valiantly fight, and try to make it out of the maze with their lives.”

Bullshit.

They act like they’re sorry, they act like they feel sad for all the lives that have been lost at their hands. But really, they aren’t. They don’t care about us, only about themselves. They think if we sacrifice one person to the maze every month that we’ll please the gods, when really they’re oblivious to the fact they abandoned us long ago. Why else was the maze created?

“As always, the selected will have three hours to gather weapons and materials for their journey, and to say goodbye to their family and friends before they leave. Thank you to all of you who have stood up to fight for your village and for all of us”

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I just escaped, got out of the village and ran off. But who knows what’s beyond the village, it’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve grown up here, the selection has always been here. If I left the village, escaped to the forest and ran away from the life I know, would I be able to get out of the selection? Sapnap and I have entertained the idea before, just leaving and looking for a better life, one that’s not threatened at the beginning of every month.

“And now, for the moment you’re all waiting for.” Phil’s voice echoes as the ballot box appears, retracting out of the floor and standing there, symbols of death on the cobblestone.

There’s a collective inhale of breath as Phil walks over, Wilbur opening the box and Phil dipping his hand inside. He comes back with a small piece of parchment, a letter with a single name enclosed, a name of one of the many people around me. Someone whose name will be called, and they’ll be sent to their death.

As he walks back over to the microphone and unfolds the letter, I’m suddenly hit with a wave of deja vu. I suddenly remember watching people I knew for years, people I grew up alongside, hearing their names be called and sent to their death.

Eret, such a kind soul who had the respect of everyone in the village. When their name was called, Niki wept for days, her bakery closed for a full week after Eret was sent to the maze and never seen again. The only person who could console Niki was Wilbur.

Technoblade, a valiant soldier and mentor all those who wanted to learn the ways of the blade. He had been taught under Phil himself, and taught his knowledge to others around him. It was a surprise when we heard his name being called, and the entire village mourned his disappearance for days. We all thought that if one person could make it out of the maze, it would be Technoblade. But he hasn’t come back for six months now, so we’re all led to believe a terrible fate befell him once inside the maze.

Ponk, the respected scientist who constantly got himself into crazy antics. His goodbye with his brother Purpled was beyond heartbreaking, seeing as the month Ponk was selected was supposed to be his last time in the drawing. He was almost free, but then his name was called. I can still hear Purpled’s screaming sometimes, him watching as his brother was ripped away and tossed carelessly into the maze.

Countless other names come to mind. I’ve heard so many people’s names being called, watched as they’ve said tearful goodbyes to their friends and family, seen the realization on their face as they realize they’ll never see their family or lovers again. It’s heartbreaking.

By the time I come back to my own thoughts, I’ve missed it.

_I’ve missed the name calling._

Sapnap turns to me, his face ghostly pale and his eyes widened in fear. My heart sinks into my chest as everyone in the crowd turns and looks at us, their eyes boring into my head.

“Did they call my name?” I ask, almost in a whisper, my voice shaky and my knees wobbling. Sapnap swallows hard and shakes his head.

“They called mine.”

By the time I’ve realized it’s too late. The guards grab Sapnap by his arms and pull him up to the stage. I’m frozen in fear, watching as he doesn’t even try to stop them. My whole body is shaking, but I can’t move.

My only friend, hell, _my best friend_ is being sent to die.

And I can’t do anything about it.

The crowd disperses after hearing any name besides their own, leaving me all alone. I watch as they drag Sapnap away, him staring at me, looking as if he’s about to cry.

I told him they wouldn’t call his name.

I was wrong.

I lied to him and I didn’t even know it.

Suddenly there’s a hand on my shoulder, and I jump from the contact. I turn to see who it is, hoping that by some chance it’s Sapnap, only to see Wilbur.

“Hey mate, you alright?” Wilbur asks, a bit of concern in his voice. I brush off his hand and shake my head.

“No, no I’m not.” I say, my vision beginning to blur as I feel my eyes sting. Fuck, I can’t cry. Not now, not here. “Sapnap, he…” My voice breaks, and I reach up and bite my fist to stop from bursting into tears.

“Hey, I get it.” Wilbur says, pocketing his hands and shrugging. I look at him, with a look of disgust on my face.

“How? You’ve never had to worry about the selection, all because of your rich dad.” I spit at him, not knowing where all of the venom and resentment is coming from.

Wilbur narrows his gaze at me. “Just because I’m safe from it, doesn’t mean my friends are. You’re not the only person to lose a friend to the maze.” He tries to put his hand on my shoulder again, but I step away.

“I- I’m not going to lose him. He’s going to get out of that maze, I’ll make sure of it.” I turn to walk off to where I know they’ll be holding Sapnap for the next three hours until they put him in the maze.

“How?” Wilbur calls after me.

“I don’t know, but I’ll figure something out.” I look over my shoulder at him, before walking off without a goodbye.

* * *

The door finally opens and I’m allowed into the room, after one person came out. When I step inside, I see Sapnap sitting at a small table, the other chair opposite him empty. I smile sadly at seeing him and sit down. It looks like he’s been crying, but there’s no tears on his face currently.

“Hi.” I say quietly, sitting down. He smiles at me.

“Hey dude.” He says in a quiet voice. It’s never been like Sapnap to be quiet. But of course, given the situation at hand, that’s no surprise he’s not acting like himself. After all, he only has thirty minutes until he’s sent into the maze. He wanted to see me last, seeing as a couple other people came to say goodbye to him. 

“How are you holding up?” I ask him, already feeling a lump in my throat. There’s no way I’m not crying in here. This is possibly the last time I’ll ever see my best friend.

“Y’know, best I can be for a dead man walking.” He says with a slight chuckle.

“Don’t say that.” I say quietly, reaching across and taking his hand in mine.

He sighs wistfully as our fingers interlock, him looking through the window to his right. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

“You’re not dying in that maze, you hear me?” I tell him, leaning across the table slightly. I’m not going to admit some part of me doesn’t believe what I’m saying.

He turns to face me, tears already welling in his eyes. I’ve only seen him cry once or twice before, and it breaks my heart.

“You know no one comes out of the maze, Georgie.” He tells me, his voice breaking as tears leave tracks down his cheeks.

“But I know you can.” I tell him, squeezing his hand tighter. “You’re so unbelievably strong, and if anyone can get out of that hellish maze, it’s you.” He nods solemnly, staring at my hand as he rubs his thumb over the back of my hand. We fall into a comfortable silence, neither of us wanting to say goodbye, knowing it could be the last time.

“I brought some things for you.” I say, breaking the silence and reaching for my bag. I pull out the loaf of bread we bought earlier as well as a couple other things and push them towards Sapnap. “I don’t know if there’s food in the maze, so you can have the bread even though I know you don’t like sourdough. And then my favorite hunting knife, because I knew you always liked it more than me anyways. And I bought some medical supplies for you, just in case something bad happens. I don’t know if they already gave you some bandages and pain medication and stuff, so I got you some.”

He sifts through the supplies for a moment, then looks up at me with a smile. “Thanks, George.” I nod as he puts them in a rucksack that I’m pretty sure they gave him to put supplies in. It’s always seemed weird to me that even though they’re sacrificing people to an otherworldly maze, they’re giving them supplies to try and survive and get through the labyrinth. 

I swallow hard, not knowing what else to say to prolong the inevitable. “Who all has come to see you?”

He leans back in his chair, biting his lip and thinking. “Niki came and gave me some muffins, Wilbur wished me good luck, Punz came and gave me an awesome pep talk and an extra change of clothes, and Karl came and…” He trails off, tears beginning to well in his eyes again. Who knows how many times he’s cried already today.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” I say quickly, realizing how upset he’s gotten. He sighs shakily and nods.

Then his eyes light up and he fishes for something in his pocket. “I almost forgot, I have something I wanted to read you.” He pulls out a piece of paper and unfolds it. “These are the things I want you to do for me while I’m gone.” He takes a deep breath before reading the list.

“Make sure you eat a bunch of cinnamon bread for me. I know I’m probably the only one that eats that stuff, so make sure Niki doesn’t stop selling it. I want you to punch Skeppy for me, like just sucker punch him in the face. He had it coming after all. If I don’t come back, turn my side of the room into a monument for me, and like have people pay to come and see my belongings. And if I do come back, you best believe we’re gonna become famous together. I’m definitely taking you with me.” I laugh a bit at his requests, but I can’t help but feel a pang of sadness.

Then there’s a knock on the door, and both of our attention is drawn to the door. A voice comes from behind it, alerting us we only have three minutes left. I stand up and push my chair in, and I’m almost immediately engulfed in a hug. I freeze for a moment, before I hug him back, wrapping my arms around him tightly. It’s not long before tears are running down my face, and I can hear him sobbing.

“I’m gonna miss you so fucking much, dude.” He says through sobs, his voice completely broken.

“If you don’t come back, I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.” I choke out, burying my face into his shoulder, not caring at this point if I soak his shirt. He doesn’t answer me, and that makes my heart sink even further. Why does this feel like goodbye, forever? Like this is the last time I’ll ever hug him.

“Promise me this isn’t the last time.” I say, pulling him closer and squeezing my eyes shut, not wanting to leave the hug. “Promise this isn’t the last time I’ll get to hug you again, that I’ll see you again.”

He chuckles a bit as he pulls away. “I promise, George. We’ll see each other again.” I smile and nod, wiping the tears off of his face.

“And when you get back, I swear we’ll play manhunt as many times as you want.” I say, wanting to see him laugh one more time before he goes. It works, because he chuckles a bit.

“Okay, you better keep your word or I will cry.” He says, and it’s my turn to laugh.

Suddenly the door opens and a guard stands in the door. I look back to Sapnap.

“I’ve got to go.” Sapnap says, his voice quiet and breaking.

“I know.” I say, pulling him in for one last hug. I savor his contact, knowing I have no clue when we’ll see each other again. I pull away, look at him one last time, then I’m escorted out of the room.

* * *

I stand amongst the small crowd, watching as they take Sapnap to the front of the maze, to the large wooden doors that are latched shut with multiple different complicated locks. It’s said that when the gods abandoned our world, monsters ran rampant, and the maze was created. But our ancestors were able to lock all the monsters away into the maze. Yet, they open it up every month to throw one person inside to be sacrificed to the horrors within.

The sun hangs low in the sky, clouds beginning to gather and blocking out the light. I watch as they brief Sapnap about what’s going to happen, him fidgeting nervously with the straps of the rucksack over his shoulders.

It feels like my heart is splitting in two. Sapnap’s been my best friend, my only friend over the years. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself with him gone. There’ll be no one to have late night talks with, no one to play manhunt with, no one to accompany me through the dark, ominous streets.

I watch as the guards begin to unlock the doors. Sapnap looks over his shoulder, and we lock eyes. I smile at him, and he smiles back.

The doors open, revealing a blinding light.

Sapnap walks forward into the bright light.

And then he’s gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> word count: 3099 words


	3. three - nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George tries to cope with the emptiness after Sapnap leaves, and the nightmares that surface in his absence.

I have nightmares every night now.

They’re never the same, but they always end the same. They always end with Sapnap dying in some tragic way to the horrors within the maze. Sometimes it’s a trap, a fifty foot deep pit of spikes. Sometimes it’s a monster, like a giant three-headed snake that bites his head clean off. No matter what it is, he always ends up dying at the end. And I wake up screaming, no one there to comfort me. I’ve probably become a nuisance to my neighbors by now. But this isn’t unusual, other people who have lost a close one to the maze have had to deal with horrible nightmares and thoughts.

Although, there’s always one thing the same in my nightmares, beside the fact that Sapnap dies at the end of every one of them.

There’s always a dark figure there. I can never make out who the person is, their appearance constantly seems to shift. But one thing is always the same.

The person is always smiling.

I can’t help but assume they’re a creature from within the maze. My mother used to tell me stories about the monsters within the maze. I think it was her way of coping, seeing as my Dad was sent to the maze before I could ever meet him. She told me that there were plenty of monsters within the maze, but there was one monster in the maze, it was the monster of the maze.

The monster was the main cause of all the deaths in the maze, and the most feared creature within. It was the only one of its kind, and no one knew anything about it. But sometimes, if you listened closely to the maze, you could hear the monster beckoning for you, to come inside the maze and play with it. She always said the monster had a strange pull, it could entrance people and lull them into a false sense of security, that’s what made it so dangerous.

If my mother’s monsters are anything like she said they were, I just hope Sapnap never runs into _the_ monster.

One night, after a certain gruesome nightmare where Sapnap got his blood sucked out by deadly leeches and was left to bleed out to death, I realized I couldn’t just stand by and let him get killed by whatever creatures await him within the labyrinth.

So, I’ve come up with a plan.

After Sapnap got sent to the maze, everyone started treating me differently. It’s obvious they pity me, they feel bad for me because they know how close Sapnap and I were. I was expecting it, sure. It was bound to come after his name was called.

But then Skeppy started being nicer to me.

I don’t know why, honestly. Maybe he feels bad for me. I’ve heard rumors that a couple years ago he lost someone close to him to the maze, and they never made it back. If that’s the case, maybe he’s taken pity on me because he’s been in the same place as me. Or maybe it’s because he never liked Sapnap, and now that he’s gone he has no reason to be mean to me any more.

Sometimes he walks with me through the streets, just following me as I do my daily tasks. He doesn’t talk, just watches me and sometimes offers help with carrying things or such. It's not like I’d consider him my friend, but… I’ll admit, it’s nice to at least have someone there.

The days have blended together. Before I know it it’s the first of April, and it’s time for the next selection. Everyone seems to have already forgotten about Sapnap, and are already focused on themselves, and making sure that their name isn’t called.

All they think about is themselves. Selfish…

Before I know it I’m standing in town square again, and up on stage stands Phil and Wilbur again. The silence of the crowd is unbearable, everyone collectively holding their breath and biting their tongues, thinking that perhaps if they’re still or quiet enough they’ll think they’re invisible and then their name won’t be inside the drawing. But that won’t stop the drawing, the selection. It’s gonna happen no matter what.

Sometimes I wonder if someone actually gets out of the maze that they’ll stop throwing people inside.

But I don’t know if we’ll ever get that lucky.

“Thank you to all of you who have stood up to fight for your village and for all of us.” Phil repeats, the same speech that’s always given before the selection. My heart beats rapidly inside my chest, I can hear it pounding louder than ever before. I take a shaky breath as I ball my hands to keep my fingers from shaking. 

“And now, for the moment you’re all waiting for.”

Phil walks over to the ballot box.

Time slows down.

I can’t hear anything.

Somehow, my eyes find Skeppy in the crowd. He’s looking at me, his brown eyes staring me down, as if he knows. He knows what I’m about to do. He shakes his head at me, as if trying to warn me. He thinks he can stop me.

My eyes go back to the stage, the backpack over my shoulders feeling heavy, the weight weighing me down and evident of what I’m about to do. My throat is dry.

The box appears, and Phil watches it appear. Wilbur opens the top.

It’s now or never.

Before he can reach inside, I finally find my voice.

“Wait!” I call out, hating the way my voice is so shaky. Phil’s hand freezes above the box, everyone’s eyes immediately traveling towards me. I’m sure this has never happened before in the history of the selection.

Phil grabs the microphone from off the stand and puts it in front of his face.

“Yes?” He asks, confusion evident in his tone. I feel the crowd’s eyes boring into my head, I’m sure if they could they’d fry my brains and stare lasers into my skull.

I take a deep breath, swallowing the nerves, and possibly bile too.

“I volunteer.” A collective gasp erupts from the square. Phil’s eyes go wide, and Wilbur drops the lid to the ballot box, making an ominous thunk noise.

“I volunteer for the maze.” I repeat myself, taking a couple steps forward.

Phil puts a hand over the microphone and turns to Wilbur and says something, and I’m pretty sure it’s along the lines of _can he do that?_

The crowd shuffles nervously for a few seconds as Phil and Wilbur discuss something. The crowd parts a bit to make it even more obvious that I’m the one the attention is supposed to be on. There’s constant mumbling around me from the others, and suddenly someone’s grabbing my wrist. I turn and I’m face to face with Skeppy, who’s glaring daggers at me.

“Why the hell did you do that?” He sneers, his voice almost in a whisper. I pull my arm from his grip.

“I’d rather it be me than him.” I retort, ripping myself away from him. Suddenly his eyes widen and he steps back, his breathing ragged. I look away from him back to the stage.

Wilbur hops back on the stage and hands Phil a book, Phil putting the microphone back in the stand. They look through it wordlessly for a moment, before Phil clears his throat.

“Well, there’s certainly nothing in the rule book that says anything about volunteering.” Phil says, flipping through the pages and nervously looking to his son, who looks just as confused. “It’s never happened before.” He turns back to the crowd, turns back to me. 

“Well I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

As the guards guide me away, for the first time the crowd doesn’t immediately dissipate, and instead stands there, mouths agape and eyes widened in shock.

* * *

I’m sitting in the same room I came to see Sapnap for the last time in. I’m in the same chair as him, the same one he sat in when I spoke to him for the last time. The same chair everyone sits in when they see their family and friends to the last time.

Only, this time, no ones come to see me.

Even before Sapnap left, I never really had any friends. I’ve been told I’m ‘not likeable’, but who really cares in this world? Sure, there were a few people I’d consider ‘acquaintances’, like Niki and Wilbur, but since Sapnap left I’ve become distant. Just makes things easier for when I leave, I guess. That way if I don’t come back, they won’t be sad. Sapnap was always the one people liked, anyways.

_Like._ People _like_ Sapnap, they still do. He’s not gone. He isn’t. I’m going to find him. He’s alive. And we’re going to get out together.

They gave me time to take anything I want with me. I already gathered all my supplies from my shared apartment with Sapnap, and grabbed a couple things from their supply room as well, like water, hunting boots, spare clothes, and knives. I gathered everything I could fit in my bag, and now I’m here, waiting.

But I know no ones going to come and see me to the door, wish me luck and cry over my disappearance. They all think that since I volunteered I want to die, that I signed up for death, but really it’s quite the opposite. I want to save my best friend and make it out of the maze alive. Either that, or I’ll go down trying.

My fingers are laced together in front of me, I’ve been staring at them interlocked for the past… Thirty minutes? There’s no way to tell, even the small window with barely any light visible can’t tell me how long it’s been. I have a feeling they’ll keep me here until my three hours is up, even if no one wants to see me one last time.

Suddenly the door swings open, and a guard walks in. It can’t be time already, right?

“You have a visitor.” The guard announces plainly. The guard leaves, the door open behind them, leaving me to wonder who could possibly be coming to see me.

My question is answered for me when my visitor walks in.

Skeppy.

I’m silent as the door shuts behind him, and instead of taking the seat opposite me he leans against the wall, picking at his fingernails.

“What are you doing here?” I break the silence after a moment. “Coming to rub it in my face that I’m going to die?”

Skeppy stays silent, continuing to pick at his nails. I say nothing, waiting for him to explain himself.

After a couple seconds, he sighs and crosses his arms.

“Why did you do it?” He deadpans, avoiding my gaze.

I swallow hard. “You know why. My friend is in there, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing he doesn’t come back.”

Skeppy pinches his brow. “You know no one comes out of the maze. You’re just gonna end up getting not only him killed, but yourself too.”

“I don’t have time for your lectures, Skeppy.” I spit, leaning across the table and scowling at him. He doesn’t look amused. “If you’re just going to scold me like a little kid, then I don’t want to hear it. Get out of here.”

But Skeppy doesn’t leave. Instead, he starts fumbling with something on his chest, staring at the wall. I furrow my brow and look closer, trying to see what he’s toying with. If my eyes aren’t deceiving me(which they usually do because of my colorblindness), he’s running his fingers over something tied around his neck. A necklace maybe?

He finally notices I’m staring, and quickly puts it away, hiding it under his shirt. I blink a couple times at him, waiting for him to say something, anything.

“The point is, George,” He says, finally walking over and sitting down, leaning over the table and looking at me straight in the face. “What you did was really brave, standing up for your friend like that.”

I blink a couple times, not expecting him to say that.

“Thank you..?” I respond with, not knowing how to react. He rolls his eyes, leaning back in his chair.

“Don’t act so surprised. I’m being honest. That was a real gutsy move, volunteering to go find your friend.” He stares over my shoulder, his hands reaching up and fiddling with the thing again. “I wish I had had the guts to do the same.”

I watch him silently, as his eyes glaze over and his thumb traces the surface of the thing he’s toying with. It looks like a pendant, but I can’t tell for sure. My eyes go to his other hand, still on the table. I think…

Before I can stop myself, I’m reaching across the table and grabbing his hand. He flinches and looks at me, but I just smile and hold his hand. He’s obviously going through something, although I don’t know what.

Despite the fact I expect him to, he doesn’t pull away. He just simply lets me hold his hand. Strange… Given the situation, you’d expect him to be the one reassuring me, yet here we are.

Then suddenly the door swings open, and the guard reenters, bringing both our attention to them.

“You have three minutes remaining.” They say simply, no emotion in their voice. And then they’re gone.

Skeppy sighs and stands up, pushing in his chair as he pockets his hands. He stares at the floor for a minute, then looks back up at me.

“Y’know, George, I genuinely hope that you make it out of there.” He looks at me, and for once there’s not anger in his eyes. It’s something more like sadness.

“Thanks, it means a lot Skeppy.” He nods, and then walks for the door. His hand ghosts over the handle, and then he freezes. I watch as his head whips back in my direction and he looks at me one last time. I expect him to say something, and he opens his mouth too. But then he stutters, and closes it again, looking away. It’s obvious he wanted to say something, but stopped himself before doing so.

“Good luck, George.” He says, then leaves before I can thank him, the door shutting quietly with a soft click.

Ten minutes later I’m standing in front of the doors. The giant, oak doors that are latched shut with multiple different, complicated locks. I’ve never been this close to them before. It’s crazy how only a couple of intricate locks can keep out a platoon of deadly ravenous monsters.

“You know how it works, correct?” Wilbur’s voice drags me away from staring at the large doors leading to my demise. I nod shakily at him, balling my hands into fists tightly until my knuckles turn white. I won’t admit it, but I’m scared. Not for myself, because I’m worried it might be too late.

“Alright. We’ll open the doors and you just walk inside, and then you’ll be in the maze.” Wilbur says, following my gaze back up to the doors. I nod, not wanting to look at him, don’t want to see his pity.

He shifts beside me before speaking again. “Is it true that you volunteered for Sapnap?” Wilbur asks. I don’t even look at him, I just nod again. “That’s awfully brave of you. Good luck in there.” I stand back as the doors begin to unlatch, locks clicking as they’re opened, gears turning loudly as all the locks slowly open up to let me inside.

I turn and look behind me one last time, savoring the look of the town square. There’s more people here than usual when they open the maze. I guess they all want to see me go inside, curious as to why I volunteered to die. I spot multiple familiar faces, all watching me with expressionless faces, having seen too many of these dumb maze opening rituals to cry. I can’t help but scan the crowd for Skeppy, but here’s not there. I sigh and turn back to the door, his words echoing through my head as the door slowly swings open.

_What you did was really brave, standing up for your friend like that._

A sliver of light shines on the ground as the doors opens.

_I wish I had had the guts to do the same._

The door opens, revealing the blinding light within, masking the maze inside, so you don’t know what you’re walking in to see.

I take a shaky breath and relax my fingers, staring straight ahead. If I’m going to die in the maze, I’m going to hold my head high while doing it.

As the white light shines in front of me, for a moment I swear I see a smiling face, the one that appears in my nightmares. I take one last deep breath of fresh, open air.

I stare death straight in the face, taking on the challenge, and walk forward, stepping into the light.

The scene shifts and then I’m falling through the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> word count: 2875 words


	4. four - run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George enters the maze, and is faced with a few of the many dangers that lurk inside. Will he be able to find Sapnap before the monsters find him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw warning // some blood in this chapter!

I look around me, trying to figure out where I am. All of a sudden the sky is completely dark, stars already littering the deep shades of blue. The scene would be beautiful, if I wasn’t falling to my death.

I look down, flailing my arms as I begin to hyperventilate, panicking already. I try to look for something to stop my fall, maybe if I’m lucky there’ll be a pond, or maybe a giant pile of slime?

My eyes widen as I finally see the ground beneath me, unfortunately with nothing to break my fall. I curse myself. I’m going to die before even _entering_ the maze.

Then I spot a couple trees, and angle myself towards them, hoping by some miracle they'll be able to break my fall. As I get closer to the ground, it seems like I’m falling faster. I mentally curse myself and reach for the branches.

The branches slip through my hands and tear up my gloves from the impact. Thankfully they slow me down, but they tear through my gloves and into my hands. I curse as I let go and fall to the ground, falling on my back. Pain courses through me as I wince, screwing my eyes shut and waiting for the pain to die down. It’s not bad enough to kill me, at least.

What the hell? Does everyone who enters the maze have to fall through the sky? Or just me? Does the universe really hate me that much? Am I just that unlucky?

Once the pain dies down a bit, I open my eyes. I’m faced with a night sky filled with countless stars, but no moon in sight. I frown. How did it get dark so quick? When I stepped into the maze it was barely the afternoon. Did time pass that quickly, or do things just work differently here?

I reluctantly sit up, refusing the urge to yelp or cry out in pain, not knowing if there’s any monsters nearby. The first thing I do is look at my hands, which are bleeding all over. My fall onto the trees completely ripped up my new gloves, and tore my skin open. I frown in frustration and rip off my gloves, wincing through the pain.

I grab for the bandaging in my backpack, trying not to get blood all over everything inside. I slowly wrap up the bleeding cuts, making sure not to use a lot of the bandaging. After my hands are taken care of, I toss my gloves back in my bag and stand up. My legs are wobbly from my fall, so I hold onto the tree next to me to hold myself up. I look around and get my bearings.

I’m a small clearing, a couple tall trees hanging overhead, the area surrounded by a tall ten feet granite wall. Strange. The maze’s walls always looked taller from the outside.

I take a couple shaky breathes and pull my night vision goggles over my face due to how dark it is, seeing as the night sky is absent of the moon. But when I click the goggles on, they don’t flicker to life. I curse under my breath and pull them off my face. I pick up a stray piece of wood from one of the trees and strike against the wall of the maze a couple times, fortunately getting a flame to light. I make a small noise of triumph, the flame lighting my way. 

I have to hold onto the wall a bit as I walk. I trace my hand over the smooth granite, surprised at how sleek the surface is in a deadly maze. My eyes watch my surroundings carefully as I slowly make my way through, my steps careful and quiet to not attract any potential dangers. I can’t help but wonder how long it will be until I run into some horrible monster.

Suddenly my vision is blurred. I stop and reach up to my left eye, and my fingers come back covered in a sticky deep almost black-yellow colored substance.

Blood.

I groan and wipe the blood off of my face. I must have cut my face when I fell. I’ll deal with it later, it’s surely not severe due to it only starting to bleed now. I continue along, my blood covered fingertips leaving marks on the walls as I go. At least if I get turned around I’ll know I came this way already. Unless there’s bloody trails already left on the walls by those who have come through here before me…

I shake the ominous thoughts off, trudging on.

I come to the first fork in the road, two different routes leading off to my left and my right. I stop and look between both paths, not knowing which to take. I close my eyes and think of which Sapnap would take.

_Take the right side, idiot._ I can almost hear him in my head. _The left side is for losers, like people who are left handed._ I roll my eyes just thinking of him, and walk down the right path. And as soon as I do I hear a distant roar from behind me. A chill runs down my spine, and I start going faster, not wanting to figure out what’s making that roaring noise.

After who knows how long of walking and turning down multiple different hallways, I find myself in another clearing. This one seems a bit smaller than the last one with the trees. There’s a small shrine in the middle of the clearing with chalk-like symbols drawn on. A small stream trickles nearby, strange looking foliage lining the walls. I decide to take a break and sit on a rock near the stream, pulling out my water and downing part of the bottle. I wipe my lips clean, taking a deep breath. I watch the stream trickle behind me, the water looking clear and tempting. But I don’t know if the water in this maze is safe.

I stand back up and examine the shrine in the middle. It’s a small stone structure, with white chalk-like symbols drawn around the sides of it. They seem to glow ever so slightly, lighting up the surroundings. There’s a single, larger symbol on the top of the shrine, resembling an L slightly with a couple dots around. I bring out a notebook I stashed in my backpack and scribble down the drawing, then put it away. Who knows if it could be useful later. Maybe the exit to the maze has a code you need to break using symbols dotted throughout the maze.

I stuff the notebook back into my bag and sit back down, taking a quick breather. I look at the strange looking vines covering the walls. They resemble spider webs a bit, but they seem to be green, although I can’t tell due to my colorblindness. Maybe there's giant spiders in the maze that make green webs. I wouldn’t be surprised, honestly. There are small flower buds growing from the vines littering the walls. They’re a pale blue color, possibly pink. They don’t look like anything I’d see back home. I lean forward to take a sniff, and immediately start coughing from the rich sweet scent. It feels like I’ve just walked by a rich lady with fancy perfume. I decide to stand up, ready to take my leave from this weird shrine-temple area.

I throw my rucksack back over my shoulders and leave the clearing, continuing down the way I’ve been headed.

After about thirty minutes(I think) I’m already fed up with the maze. There’s tons of crossroads and dead ends and you have to do a lot of backtracking. This maze is already getting on my nerves, and I’ve not even come across any horrible monsters yet.

Suddenly there’s more roaring coming from behind me. It sounds just like the roaring I heard earlier, but this time it’s much, _much_ closer. I swallow the lump in my throat and will myself to go faster, even though I have a feeling the monster has been trailing me since I entered the maze. And I definitely don’t want to figure out what monster it is, I just want to find Sapnap and get out of here.

As I venture down another pathway, the air seems to get more humid as I go. I can feel beads of sweat running down my back, and suddenly the multiple layers of clothing I’m wearing feel heavy. 

There’s dim glowing cracks in the walls I’m passing now. They’re a deep yellow color, probably orange or red. They seem to be glowing and shifting color, like magma flowing in the cracks of the walls. That seems ominous. Is there a volcano inside the maze?

When I turn the corner I’ve found myself in yet another clearing. But this one is much different from the other two I’ve come across.

The clearing seems to be made of a pond, a hot spring of sorts. The water swirls around, and steam floats up from it freely, probably the source of the heat. Below the water seems to be molten rock, probably heating up the springs. Lily pads float across the surface, rock steps in the pond, probably to stop you from burning your skin off in the water. There’s strange murals on the walls surrounding the hot springs, but I can’t make them out in the darkness. A sweet aroma fills my senses, sort of like eucalyptus, that expensive oil I’ve never been able to afford but can smell when walking past those aromatherapy shops. It’s like a zen garden.

Suddenly I hear ribbit-ing, and when I look again I spot frogs jumping across the lily pads and stones, some even swimming through the water. I let out a laugh when I see the cute creatures. Frogs? In a dangerous maze? Are you serious?

One of the frogs turns to me, it’s wide eyes seem to be cross-eyed in a derpy fashion, it’s chest vibrating as it croaks at me. It has strange patterns on it’s back, like patterns of molten rock or coal. I crouch down, and it hops over to me, examining me. Have these strange frogs ever seen a human before? I don’t know how big the maze is, so perhaps I’m the first human they’ve ever seen.

The frog considers me for a moment with wide eyes, and I smile down at it.

Then it’s tongue flies out and hits my ankle before retracting.

Pain flares up in my ankle and I fall back, wincing as a fire-like pain spans from my ankle. I look at my ankle, and see the area around where the frog’s tongue hit me now smoldering, a burn mark on my skin now. I look back at the frog again, and it blinks a couple times.

Then it sticks out its tongue again and this time it hits my cheek.

I yelp in pain, scrambling up and running in the opposite direction.

I reach up to touch my cheek as I run, immediately biting back a scream as the flesh begins to smoke from where the frog touched me. I was an idiot for thinking that there’s any peaceful creatures in this maze. Of course the cute frogs have to be lethal, with fire tongues!

As I run, I can hear ribbiting behind me, and what seems to be hopping. Are they fucking _following me?!_

I try to run faster, but they somehow are keeping pace with me. More pain flares up on my arms and legs, as their ridiculously long tongues reach out and burn me. Tears form in my eyes from the pain, but I will myself to run faster, trying to get away from the devilish creatures. The pain hurts, and it will definitely scar. I need to get away from these stupid frogs and treat my burns before they get infected, but how do I get them off my trail? Every time I turn down a path or think I’ve outmaneuvered them, they somehow find me!

But the countless times I’ve played manhunt with Sapnap have taught me to be tactical and use my surroundings to my advantage. As I run, I notice that the walls get taller, and there’s a rock pile that seems like I should be able to climb it. I beeline for it, immediately looking for a foothold and climbing up. The rocks are sharp and scratch at my skin, but I ignore the pain like I have been, and hoist myself up. As I climb, I feel more burn marks on my arms, but I bite my tongue hard and keep climbing. Eventually I pull myself up to the small platform at the top and look down, seeing the frogs beneath me. They look up at me, trying to stick their tongues out and get me, but their tongues aren’t long enough. I laugh at them, grabbing stray rocks from beside me and tossing them down at the frogs. One collides and completely squishes the frog, leaving smoldering goop. I gag at the sight, watching the frog turn into slime. Gross.

As I look over my burn wounds—that I definitely don’t have the supplies to deal with—I expect the frogs to leave, but they don’t. They hop around, some seeming to close their eyes and sleep, waiting me out. They know I have to come down at some point. The ledge I’ve found myself on is not very big or sturdy, so I’ll have to get down at some point and continue on. And I’ve run out of ammunition to throw at them, and I’m not the best aim.

I try to come up with a plan to get past them, but I can’t think up anything. They’ll catch up to me, and there’s got to be at least twenty of them, they could easily overpower me. I curse myself for getting stuck in this stupid position. If I’m going to die at the hands of some stupid frogs, I’m never going to show my face in the after life. What a stupid way to go.

But I’m not going to die. I have to power through, to get to Sapnap and get us both out of the maze, alive. It doesn’t help that I hear another roar, and it sounds closer than ever. My heart pounds inside my chest.

I rummage in my bag for something I won’t feel bad about getting rid of, and find one of my ruined bloody gloves from my entrance into the maze. It’ll work.

I aim as far away as possible from me, and throw the glove. It hits the ground with a soft thud, but it’s loud enough for the frogs to hear. They get up and start hopping away towards the noise, which gives me my opportunity to get out of here.

I quickly leap down, my legs a bit shaky from the jump, but I quickly recover and sprint down the opposite way. Unfortunately as I go, I can hear the frogs coming back after me. I curse under my breath, quickening my pace and irrationally turning down any hallway that I come across.

But then I turn a corner and realize I’ve found my way into a dead end.

My heart drops.

I whip around, hoping by some chance that I can turn around and escape them in time.

But the frogs round the corner, and there’s even more than last time.

I stand my ground, my hands shaking as I grab for the knife on my belt. I unsheathe it and grip it so hard my knuckles turn white. 

I curse under my breath as they approach, ready for anything.

But then a person rounds the corner, the frogs’ as well as my attention turning. The frogs turn to the person, their attention now on them. But then suddenly there’s a shriek, a puff of smoke and then silence. I let out a cough and stumble as the smoke clears, and when it dissipates, there's a person standing in front of me, offering their hand, no frogs in sight.

“Are you alright?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any guesses as to who our mystery person is? its probably obvious if you read the tags, ngl.
> 
> if you've enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos, i really appreciate it! <3
> 
> word count: 2699 words


	5. five - trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George meets an interesting new character from within the maze and wonders if he can trust them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw warning // burns and dealing with fresh wounds

I look up at my savior—or my executioner—and look them over.

It seems to be a boy around my age, perhaps younger than me. He has short messy hair, a piss yellow hoodie with a black turtleneck under, and jeans ripped around the knees. He’s got a belt with multiple knife holders, and a pack on his back. But the strangest part of all of this stranger, is the mask on his face with a smiley face design on.

I blink up at him for a second, then look back behind him to where the frogs were. There’s nothing left, not even piles of the gross goo the devil incarnates leave behind.

“How did you do that?” I ask, and am suddenly surprised by how quiet my voice is.

“Geez, not even a thank you?” He says, but it’s somewhat in a playful manner.

“Thanks.” I reply curtly, taking his hand. He hoists me up quickly, and I’m surprised by how strong and forceful he is.

“No problem. Those little shitheads are annoying to deal with.” He crosses his arms and looks behind him, and it’s now that I realize just how much taller he is then me.

I grumble and push past him, stalking off and looking for another way through the maze. Unfortunately, I hear footsteps behind me. I stop and whip my head around to face the stranger following me.

“Why are you following me?” I ask, not meaning to put as much venom into my words as I do. He looks a bit taken aback from my harsh words.

“Whoa, why are you being so rude? I literally just saved your life.” He says, and he has a good point. But honestly, I don’t want to have to deal with any distractions on my way to find Sapnap.

“Sorry if I seem rude, but I’m just trying to get out of this hellhole as fast as possible.” I say, continuing down the hallway, him still following behind me.

“Hey, me too!” He says, walking in front of me and blocking my path, stopping me from going any further. “We should travel together!”

I raise an eyebrow at him, annoyed at how I have to angle my head to face him. “Why are you so eager to talk to me? How do I know you’re not following me to stab me and steal my things?” I cross my arms, posing a question at him. He looks a bit surprised at my accusation.

“Look, dude, it’s been so long since I’ve seen another survivor in here, I’ve been on my own for… God, I don’t even know how long.” He stops for a second and considers, while running a hand through his messy hair, before coming to his senses and looking back to me. “Anyways, if you let me stick with you I’ll treat those burns for you. They’re pretty nasty.”

I look down at my arms and legs, having completely forgotten about the burn marks from the heat of the moment. I huff. “Fine.” I say, and if the mask hiding his face is any indication, I bet he’s smiling. 

He leads me to a small area and forces me to sit down on a suspiciously large toadstool. He kneels down and begins pulling things out of his pack, things that don’t seem like they should be able to fit in there, but I don’t question it. He sifts through his supplies for a moment, before pulling out a handful of the petite flowers I saw earlier.

“What are those for?” I ask, wrinkling my nose as I’m reminded of their sickly sweet smell. He looks at me for a second before grabbing a large leaf off one of the climbing ivies on the wall. He then takes a stone and grinds up on the flowers on the leaf, and I watch as they turn into a translucent sweet smelling gel.

“It acts as a burn soothing gel.” He says, removing his gloves on one hand and dipping a couple fingers into the substance, squishing it between his fingers. “Discovered this after being in here for so long.”

I nod at his words. He’s obviously been in the maze for a while. His exposed hand shows lots of scars, some from burns and others from claws or knives. I pretty much keep a record of everyone who goes into the maze, but I can’t place this guy. But maybe that’s due to the fact that he’s concealing his identity, and he hasn’t told me his name yet.

He kneels in front of me and holds his hand a couple inches away from me, holding his other out. I reluctantly put my arm in his when I realize he’s holding his hand out for me.

“Okay, I’m gonna warn you, it’s gonna hurt like hell.” He says in a hazardous voice, staring me down. Those circle eyes are creepy.

“No shit.” I say. “I know how burn cream works.”

He sighs, before holding his index and ring finger above one of the particularly nasty burns on my arm. He looks at me for a moment, as if asking permission, then presses his fingers to my skin.

I inhale sharply as he touches the fresh wound, still pink and tender. Pain flares up in my arm around the wounded area, just like I’m being burned again. My fingers dig into my thighs and I screw my eyes shut as I bite my lip, the pain worse than the burn cream we had back home. I remember one time I tripped and fell into a campfire Sapnap and I set up, and the pain hadn’t been nearly as bad as this time.

I blink tears away and pry my eyes open. I just now realize I’ve dug my fingers into this guy’s arm, him looking at him with a blank expression.

“You okay?” He asks in a soft voice I didn’t know he was capable of making. This guy looks so menacing, yet here he is, soothing me over a stupid burn.

I embarresedly pull my hand off of him and nod, feeling so stupid for getting so worked up over a stupid burn.

“You don’t need to feel ashamed, this stuff sucks, but it heals the burns quickly.” He says, putting a bandage tentatively over the wound, and I suppress a hiss.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m just obviously not made for this stuff. I thought I was ready, but I guess I wasn’t.” I don’t say what I wasn’t ready for, but I have a feeling he gets it.

“No one’s ready, I think.” He says, applying another coat of the gel to his fingers and locating another burn spot. “You can’t really ever be ready to get put in here, right?”

I nod, and instantly more pain flares up. My back arches and my toes scrunch. A hand places itself reassuringly on my shoulder, the touch light and tentative.

“H-Hey, just-- uh…” He says, and I blink a couple times at him. “Shit-- sorry I’m not good at this kinda stuff. Just-- Just talk to me, ‘kay? It’ll distract you from the pain.”

I nod as he wraps up the next wound. I ask the first question that comes to my mind.

“So what’s with the mask?” He immediately flinches.

“Oh-- uh-- it’s for personal reasons. You probably wouldn’t wanna know anyway.” He says, quick to defend himself. I raise my eyebrow at him.

“What? Nasty scar? Want to hide your identity? I can think of plenty of reasons to hide your face.” He looks a bit more relaxed after my answer, but still says nothing. “But why the smiley face? It’s kind of ominous.”

He chuckles at my words. “I got bored.”

“But it looks so expertly drawn.” I say, studying his mask, specifically the smiley face. There’s a couple chinks and scratches on the surface and some dirt and dried blood around the sides, but other than that the smiley face is pretty intact for being in the maze for so long.

“What can I say, I’m an _artiste._ ” He says in a mock-posh voice, sitting up straight and placing a hand on his chest. I roll my eyes at him. “Oh come on, not even a chuckle? Wow, I suck at this huh?”

“You do.” I say, fighting a chuckle.

“Hey, don’t insult the guy healing your burns!” He says in a defensive tone, and I swear the smiley face grows angry eyebrows for a second.

“Sorry, sorry!” I say, throwing my arms up in surrender. He laughs, and it sounds like a painful wheeze. “Oh my god, what kind of laugh is that?”

“That’s it, I’m leaving.” He says, standing up and turning to walk away.

“Wait no! I was joking!” I say, laughing at him. He turns around and walks back, shaking his head. He kneels down and inches a bit closer, holding his hand up to my face. I realize while we’ve been talking, he’s treated all my burn wounds on my arms and legs already.

“Okay, all I have left are the ones on your face. There’s only two, but I think they’re the worst.” He says, holding the leaf up with the rest of the burn soothing gel. “Just-- If you need-- I’m right here.” He says, fumbling over his words a bit. I nod, preparing myself for the pain. He reaches up to the burn above my right eyebrow.

“ _Fuck!_ ” I cry out, my fingernails digging into my thighs again, all my muscles tensing and biting down on my cheek hard.

When the pain subsides I realize he’s holding my hand, looking directly at me.

“Sorry.” I say, pulling my hand away from his. He doesn’t mention it again, and instead continues onto the next burn, which I’m able to contain myself from cursing during.

After he finishes up the last burn, he puts all his stuff away.

“There, now do you trust me?” He asks, throwing his things in his pack haphazardly and zipping it up. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say trust, maybe-- more like, consider okay?” I say, standing up myself.

“Okay, that’s fair,” He says, shrugging on his pack. “We are in a deadly maze after all. Anyways, can we travel together now?”

“God, you’re like a clingy puppy or something.” I say, crossing my arms and hoping he picks up on my sarcasm. He chuckles and holds his hand out, as if a proposition. I sigh and take his hand, shaking it.

“I don’t think you told me your name.” He says as we pull our hands away, both of us beginning to walk down the path now.

“George. You?” I ask.

“Dream.”

“Interesting.”

“ _Inch-resting._ ” He says in a mocking voice with a bad impression of my accent. I consider punching him, when I suddenly remember this guy isn’t Sapnap, but instead a stranger I’ve just become acquainted with. He does remind me a lot of Sapnap, though. I think they’d get along. Hopefully when I find Sapnap he’ll like Dream, 

“Shut up!” I say, pushing him lightly. He laughs, and again makes that tea-kettle laugh. That’s going to get annoying fast.

* * *

It’s the first night in the maze—at least, what _seems_ like night. It’s always dark in the maze, Dream says the sun never rises. Instead, the moon does come out in the ‘night’, and goes away during the ‘day’, only the stars giving light. It’s a little weird, and I don’t even want to know how the sun doesn’t rise in the maze.

We’ve found a small area hidden from the rest of the maze, you can only enter through a small crack in the wall. I don’t know if I’m completely sure Dream won’t steal my stuff while I’m asleep, but I’m so tired, so I don’t know if I have a choice.

We’ve set up our things, and found a small grassy area for us to sleep on. Neither of us have blankets or pillows, but that much is to be expected in the maze.

There’s a silent agreement between the both of us that we don’t pry into the other’s personal life. I don’t reveal my intentions to him, he doesn’t reveal his intentions to me. All we know about the other is that we’re both trying to find a way out of the maze, and that’s all I need to know. Even if Dream isn’t his real name, I frankly don’t care. I will admit, it is nice to have company, have someone to talk to. And it definitely is a plus that he knows a lot about the maze from being in here for so long.

“Do you sleep with your mask on?” I ask as we lay on the grass, both looking up at the stars, a couple inches away from each other.

“I’ll take it off when you go to sleep.” He answers after a moment of consideration. His voice has gotten softer, probably from the tiredness. 

I turn to face him. “What if I wake up before you?”

“I’m an early riser.” He answers, turning to face me.

“You’ll wake me up?” I find myself asking. Maybe it’s the doubt, or the want to get out of the maze as soon as possible, or maybe it’s something else.

“Geez, what is this, a sleepover?” He asks with a laugh. “You’re asking so many questions. Just go to sleep.”

“Fine!” I say, and roll over onto my other side so I’m facing away from him. I put my hands under my head to try and make a pillow for myself, but it doesn’t do much. I huff and steady my breathing, closing my eyes and trying to fall asleep.

Unfortunately it doesn’t come easily. Even though I’m so tired, I can’t fall asleep. I have a feeling it’s not just from the dread of being in the maze or the threat of a dangerous stranger sleeping directly next to me. I think it’s the fear of the nightmares returning. Who knows how bad they’ll be now that I’m actually _in_ the maze. I have a feeling the nightmare for tonight will have something to do with Sapnap burning to death from the fire frogs.

Who knows how long I lie awake, trying desperately to sleep, but failing tragically. I can’t tell if Dream is still awake. Maybe he thinks I’m asleep so he’s already fallen asleep himself, but I don’t want to risk turning to check and risking seeing him without his mask. That would be a total invasion of privacy.

Eventually I hear him rustling behind me, and I wonder if he’s taking off his mask. But then he speaks.

“Are you okay?” He asks in a whisper, and it feels like he’s gotten closer to me. He must have sensed my restlessness.

“Can’t sleep.” I mutter, wrapping my arms around myself from the chill of the night air.

“Too cold?” He asks after a moment, having seen me shiver and mistaken that for the reason I can’t sleep.

“Yeah.” I answer, deciding not to tell him about the recurring nightmares. He’s already seen how I acted about the burns, I don’t need him to have more embarrassing material about me.

He shuffles closer to me, and I can feel his body heat and it makes me stiffen.

“What are you doing?” I hiss as he practically presses his back to mine.

“You said you were cold.” He answers as if it wasn’t obvious. “We have to cuddle for warmth, Georgie.” He says the last part in a mocking voice, and it makes me wrinkle my nose and my ears warm.

I grumble, but don’t respond. Eventually, he tentatively reaches an arm and drapes it over my side, pulling me ever so slightly closer to him. I won’t admit it, but it feels… Nice. It’s been a long time since I’ve been held like this.

“Is this okay?” He asks, and I swear he’s whispered it directly into my ear. It’s as if he’s already taken his mask off. It would be so easy to just look over my shoulder and see his face.

“Y-Yeah.” I say, and hate myself for the way I stutter. It’s so dumb, why am I acting this way?

After a moment he hums, and rests his head on top of mine, my head tucked under his chin. I feel my cheeks heat up as he does so. He _definitely_ does not have his mask on. I’ve never been held like this so fondly. It’s strange, but it feels nice.

All of a sudden my eyelids feel hazy and it’s hard to keep them open, so I let sleep overtake me. It's almost as if his presence makes it easier to rest.

And for the first time in weeks, my sleep isn’t plagued by nightmares.

* * *

I’m awoken by someone flicking my forehead. My eyes flutter open immediately, and when the haze goes away I see Dream’s familiar smiley face mask in my face.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.” He says, sitting up. “We’ve got to get going.”

“Okay, okay.” I say, sitting up. I realize that I must have rolled over sometime in my sleep. I immediately push the image of me and Dream cuddling away when I remember what happened last night. He seems to have forgotten it already, slinging on his pack and acting as if it never happened. Did he and his friends cuddle all the time? Or is it just me being weird because I’ve never had someone do that to me before?

I walk to my stuff and double check that it’s all there, and I can feel him boring holes into the back of my head.

“I didn’t take anything.” He says, and I pick up on the small edge of hurt in his voice.

“I’m sorry, I just-” I say, slinging on my rucksack without fully going through everything. “Sorry, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I don’t exactly know I can _fully_ trust you already.” Why am I apologizing so much? Why am I trying to explain myself to him? What is going on?

“It’s fine, I get it.” He says with a sigh, looking away. I gather all my things as he silently watches, his presence ominously quiet, like if he stands still for too long he’ll blend into the maze.

“Alright, let’s go.” I say, anxious to get out of the maze. We silently walk to the exit from our safe place and step out into the hallway. We stick close to each other as we walk, neither of us saying anything.

“You got anyone waiting for you back home?” He finally breaks the silence, helping me over a large tree root that I begrudgingly let him help me over.

“No, not really.” I say, not knowing if he means friends or a partner. Either way, I have no one. “What about you?” I ask, looking up at him as we walk alongside each other.

He considers it for a moment, then turns to me. “Yeah, I do actually.”

“Oh.” I respond in a quiet voice. I don’t know why it feels a bit disappointing to me. “What’s her name? Or his?” I add the last part, frankly not having gotten a good read on this guy yet.

He turns to me, obviously trying to hold back a snicker. “Your mom.”

“Oh-- Wow-- _Geez_ , dude!” I sputter out, punching him lightly in the arm as he breaks out into a fit of laughter. “Sapnap would have _loved_ that one!” I suddenly realize what I’ve said and clap a hand over my mouth, him suddenly turning to me.

“Sapnap? Whose that?” He asks curiously, suddenly not laughing anymore, as if the air was just sucked out of the room. “Is he one of your friends back home?” The way he asks it sounds weird, like he’s hyper fixated on this detail for some reason.

“Yeah.” I reply quietly, fidgeting with my cuffs and avoiding his gaze. I decide to hold back the ever so small and miniscule detail that Sapnap is the reason I’m in the maze, having volunteered to try and rescue him.

“Oh, don’t worry dude, I bet he’ll be waiting for you when you get out of here.” He says, pocketing his hands and shoving me with his shoulder. I smirk and shove him back, but since he’s much taller and stronger than me he barely moves. A pang of pain shoots through me at the fact that Sapnap’s _not_ at home, he’s in this fuckall maze and could be dead for all I know.

“Haha, wimp.” He says, finally dragging me back to my senses. I roll my eyes.

“Oh, shut up. I’m not going to talk to you from now on.” I cross my arms and look away with a huff, acting like a child. He laughs, and I can’t help but laugh too.

Conversation with Dream is just so effortlessly easy. It’s nice to finally have someone to talk to, who will listen to me. Maybe we can be friends after this, maybe Sapnap will like him too and after all three of us get out we’ll sit around the campfire telling stories of our time in the maze to the people of the village who never believed in us. Maybe we’ll get famous, and we’ll be known as ‘The Dream Team’, or something dumb like that. Maybe things will be fine after this.

Maybe, just once, I’ll get lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh look a wild dream 👀
> 
> for those of you not aware this story will have dnf, so if you dont like dnf,, well i dunno what to say. sorry bro
> 
> if you've enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos, i really appreciate it! <3
> 
> word count : 3498 words


	6. six - new

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George gets more used to being inside the maze - And the company of Dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw // blood and mini panic attack at the beginning

The first thing I’m aware of when I wake up is that Dream isn’t holding onto me anymore. It’s been a few days since I’ve been in the maze, and it’s become a routine thing for us now. I don’t exactly know how it happens, it just… Does. I mean, we have to keep ourselves warm somehow—right?

The second thing I’m aware of is that Dream is yelling. I groggily try to pry my eyes open, but it’s hard to tell what’s going on through the early morning haze. I can’t tell what he’s saying, it’s like I’m underwater, the water pressure preventing me from clearly hearing him.

When I finally can make out what he’s saying, it’s too late.

“George! Get out of there!”

The third thing I’m aware of when I wake up is that the clearing we’ve found ourselves in, is _collapsing_.

The floor is caving in, rock breaking apart and gravel falling into the chasm opening beneath us. I yelp as I try to scramble back, grabbing blindly for anything to pull me up. My breath hitches as the ground becomes unsteady beneath me and starts rumbling, pieces breaking off and falling below. I look down and see the chasm below dark and filled with razor sharp spikes—Of course there’s spikes.

“George!” Dream yells once more, and it brings me out of my frozen state. I grab my bag and scramble to my feet. I search the crumbling landscape for him, and spot him on the other side of a growing chasm. He’s by the exit, on a piece of land that doesn’t look in risk of collapsing.

“Dream!” I shout back, running towards him, only to stop in front of the fissure separating us. I look over the gap. It’s gotten too big for me to jump. I look up at him, fear shaking me to my core and panic overtaking me. “What do I do?”

Dream considers the gap for a moment, holding onto the wall behind him for support. “You’re gonna have to jump.”

“What?!” I yell, stepping back another few steps as the gap grows in size. “I’ll never make it!”

“You have to try!” He shouts, and there's pleading in his voice. “I-- I’ll catch you!”

“Don’t you have some rope or something?”

“George!”

“Fine!” I shout back, taking another few steps back and readying myself for the lengthy leap. My hands are shaking as they fasten the pack to my back and I take a shaky breath.

“George, now!”

I run, gathering as much momentum as possible as the ground crumbles beneath me. At the last piece of steady ground, I leap across the chasm towards Dream, who’s holding out a hand to me.

Time slows down.

I’m falling.

Too fast.

_I’m not going to make it._

I reach for Dream as I kick and flail.

I fall short.

But then Dream grabs me and holds onto my wrist tight.

I wrap my fingers around his wrist tightly as he hoists me up with all his strength, and pulls me to the platform. I collapse onto him, breathing heavily, body shaking from the panic and anxiety coursing through me. I put my head against his chest as I completely crumple in from the adrenaline rush and achingness on my bones. His heartbeat thrums in my ears, beating fast from the situation that just happened.

After a moment I feel his fingers threading through my hair a bit shakily, but I don’t recoil or pull away. And frankly, I don’t have the strength to. I’m sure if I tried to lift my arm I’d pass out.

“Are you okay?” He asks after a moment.

“Y-- Yeah, I’m okay.” I answer, enjoying his company for a moment. I push myself up a bit and then realize our position. I’ve just collapsed on top of him, laying on his chest and completely pinning him to the ground. My face heats up and I push myself off of him, forcing my shaky legs to stand up and keep myself upright.

He stands up as well, and I consider offering him my hand, but then I realize I probably wouldn’t be able to support his weight in my shaky state.

“Does that usually happen in here?” I ask, dusting myself off and surveying the empty pit that was the place we took up camp last night.

“Yeah, pretty much.” He answers. 

“Doesn’t surprise me.” I respond with a sigh. We get to walking, wordlessly continuing our trek through the maze. I hope we find Sapnap before we find the exit. I don’t know how I’ll explain to Dream that if we come upon the exit I can’t go until I find Sapnap, seeing as Dream doesn’t know about Sapnap yet.

I wonder why we haven’t run into any monstrous beasts yet, besides those dumb frogs. I was expecting some ghastly horrendous beast to be chasing us down, or to see a deadly monster around every other corner, but nothing. After being in the maze for a couple days, I’ve gotten a bit used to it by now. It’s honestly kinda sad how I’ve gotten used to the constant sense of danger and frequent over the shoulder checks and no rising of the sun.

My stomach grumbles, so I slow to a stop and slip my pack off, rummaging through it for something. Dream slows down and watches me with curiosity, but not speaking.

My hand grasps what I’m looking for, and I let out a grunt of triumph. I throw the bag down carelessly, my stomach too empty from not having eaten in a day to care about it. I open the package, and the sweet and savory smell wafts up to my face, and I lick my lips hungrily. I stick my hand in and pull some out, stuffing the taste of the dried meat.

“What-- What’s that?” Dream asks, watching as I chew the food. I look to him, his still figure as he focuses on me, but more towards the bag of food in my hand. I didn’t even realize he must be hungry too. Who knows when he ate last.

“Oh, it’s-- It’s jerky. Do you want some?” I ask, holding the bag out to him. He tentatively takes it, studying the contents. He lifts his mask up slightly and holds the bag under it, presumably to sniff it. Has he never seen jerky before? God, how long has this guy been in here?

He takes a couple pieces out of the bag and slips them under his mask and into his mouth, I assume. There’s a moment of silence between us as he chews. 

He’s silent for another moment, just staring down at the bag. I raise an eyebrow.

“Is it okay?” I ask, and he puts some more of the food into his mouth.

“This is really good.” 

I try and hold back a chuckle at his reaction, but he catches my reaction. I clear my throat as he passes the bag of food back to me.

“Have you never had jerky before?” I find myself asking, taking a couple more pieces for myself then putting it back into my pack.

“No. It’s really good though.” He says, looking ahead of us and running a hand through his hair. As I get the bag of food back into my pack, Dream walks off ahead. I slip it back on and look at what Dream’s doing. He’s kneeled down, looking at something.

“Whatcha looking at?” I ask, looking over his shoulder. He’s staring at a small patch of what looks like grass, or maybe fur? It’s matted down and stuck together with what seems like blood, and it absolutely reeks.

“It’s hellhound fur.” Dream says, standing back up.

“Hellhound?” I find myself asking. He nods.

“They travel in packs, so if we run into them…” He trails off, visibly shivering. “Nasty creatures. Let’s just keep going and hope we don’t run into them.” I nod as he ushers me to keep walking, so I do, and wonder what the hell a hellhound is.

* * *

I shrug off my pack after having been walking for the past few hours. If I had known there would be so much walking in the maze, I would have prepared more before I went in. 

Dream throws down his pack and stretches a bit, and I try not to stare as his shirt rides up, exposing a bit of his midriff.

“I need to take a piss. I’ll be back.” He says, immediately getting rid of any embarrassment building up inside my chest.

“Alright, _pissbaby_.” I say, rolling my eyes at his overshare of information.

“Your insults are so weird.” He stops himself, then looks back at me. “Gogy.”

“Wha-- Gogy? What does that even mean?!” I shout as he begins to walk away.

He cackles to himself, then wanders off into the other area. I shake my head and then distract myself by going over our supplies, making sure we have everything and seeing what we need more of. We’re almost completely out of water, so I guess we’ll have to start drinking the water from inside the maze. Definitely not looking forward to that.

Something hits the floor hard and I hear Dream let out an exasperated “Shit!” My ears perk up and I get up, wandering into the other side of the grassy area.

“Dream?” I ask, and watch as he swings his knife blindly at a strange looking bird. It has three legs, four wings and only one eye. It’s much larger than the crows and pigeons I would see back home. The strange bird caws at him, then flies up and perches on one of the walls of the maze. It begins to prune itself, no longer finding Dream interesting.

I walk over to him as he puts his knife away, shaking his head. “I hate those dumb fucking birds so much.” He says, watching the bird. I wrinkle my nose as I watch it pluck out a couple of its own feathers, then screech at us and promptly fly away. “They’re really annoying when there’s a whole bunch of ‘em.” Dream grumbles, suddenly deciding to fasten his belt straps.

“I bet.” I grumble, thinking of the annoying crows back home that would steal your things if you so much as blinked. I look back at Dream, and suddenly there’s a glossy bright blue liquid running down his face from under his mask.

I let out an auditory gasp. “Oh my god, Dream you’re bleeding!”

Suddenly he stiffens and a hand shoots up to his face, pulling it back and seeing the substance. He fumbles and almost trips as he steps back, suddenly panicking. Oh my god, is he one of those people who can’t handle looking at their own blood?

“George, don’t look!” He says, suddenly freaking out as he tries to wipe it away, but only ends up smearing it all over his chin and a bit on his mask.

“Calm down, let me help!” I say, stepping toward him. I pull my sleeve over my hand and wipe some of the blood away, the thick substance seeping through the material quickly. He eases ever so slightly, focusing on me.

“You’re not… Freaked out?” He asks in a quiet voice. I just raise an eyebrow.

“Dude, it’s just blood.” I say, shaking my head. I watch as more blood begins to pour out from under the mask, too much for me to seep up with my shirt. “Oh my god, what even happened?”

“The bird scratched me.” Dream says nonchalantly, still distant and sounding hyper fixated on my reaction.

“It’s coming from under your mask, and it seems bad.” I say. It honestly seems more like he’s more worried about my reaction to his blood than him actually bleeding. “We need to patch it up. You’re gonna…” I trail off, biting my lip. “You’re gonna have to take off your mask.”

He stiffens again. “What? I’m not-”

“I get you don’t want me to see, but we need to patch it up before you lose too much blood! And there’s no way you can do it by yourself.” I say, quickly reaching out and grabbing his hands. “I’m not going to judge you, I honestly don’t mind what you look like, but please Dream, let me help you, like you’ve done for me.”

He softens, and I don’t miss the way he threads his fingers with mine. “Fine.” He mumbles. I lead him back to our main camp area and begin rummaging through my bag for the bandages and gauze. I take them out and look at him, where he’s sat himself on a rock.

I slowly approach him and kneel down in front of him. He avoids my gaze and looks away. I reach up to his face and he jumps, leaning away from me, the blood still streaming steadily from under the mask and soaking his pants. My gaze softens at how tentative he is.

“Dream…” I say, taking his hand. He threads our fingers and squeezes it. I've noticed he’s very fond with my touch.

I reach up and hover my hand over the surface of the mask. "Is-- Is this okay?" I ask. He hasn't said anything, but he's obviously apprehensive about people seeing his face. I'm probably crossing so many boundaries right now, but I care about him, and if he's bleeding really badly-

Dream sighs and reaches up behind his head, unclasping the band holding the mask up. The mask falls off his face.

I try not to stare too long, but he's… honestly not that bad looking. Among the nasty scars that litter his face, there's an array of freckles, almost like the stars in the sky. He's got a bit of stubble lining his chin, and his eyes match the color of his hoodie, so they must be green.

I quickly avert my eyes and spot the source of the blood, a large deep cut raked across his forehead. I clean the cut and work silently, doing my best not to stare at him. I don't know why he thinks he needs to hide himself. His scars aren't that bad, they're not particularly hideous or ruining his face. If I wasn't too afraid to admit it, I'd say he's actually attractive.

I begin to put the medical supplies away. "Alright you're all fixed up." I turn to him, expecting him to be hastily putting the mask back on and pretending it never happened, but instead he just stares at me.

"You don't think it's too bad?" He asks, nervousness evident in his voice.

"What, your scars?" I ask, finally allowing myself to meet his eyes. "No, you've been in here awhile, of course you're expected to have some marks."

He avoids my gaze, running a hand over a particularly large scar on the left side of his face. It's a long cut on his jaw that looks pretty fresh, still a bit pink and healing. I sigh and pull his hand off his face.

"You don't need to be self conscious, Dream. Your scars make you who you are." I tell him, tentatively putting my hand on his face, cupping his cheek. I run my thumb over the scar softly, and he finally meets my gaze. There's a new softness as he looks back at me, and I offer a small smile to try and reassure him.

Then he gently takes my hand off his face, then brings it to his lips and kisses the back of my hand. I feel my face go red and my eyes go wide as his lips press to my skin. They're soft against my hand, and the contact sends shivers down my spine.

"Okay-" I say, pulling my hand away. He lets out a laugh at my reaction. "Hey, that's not funny."

"Your reaction was." He quips, brandishing a sneaky smile. I huff and look away, running my fingers over the spot where his lips ghosted over my skin.

"Oh come on, stop acting like that." He says, and I look back at him, him still not wearing his mask. I stand up and slip my pack on.

"Like what?" I ask, crossing my arms and looking at him. He stands up and walks to me, looking down at me with a smirk.

"Like you don't find me attractive." He says, putting his fingers under my chin and tilting my head up ever so slightly. I open my mouth but nothing comes out. My ears feel hot as I smack his arm away.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I ask, stepping back. He doubles over and starts wheezing at my reaction, wiping a fake tear from his eye. "What happened to the insecure, soft Dream? I liked him better."

"Aw, you like me, Georgie?" He says, putting a hand to his chest and fluttering his eyelashes at me. I roll my eyes and consider smacking him again.

"Let's just get going." I say, wanting to end this interaction as fast as possible.

"Alrighty." He says, walking over and picking up his mask. He puts it back on, clipping it in place. I'll admit, it's nice to put a face to the name Dream. I was a bit worried maybe there was something horrible hiding beneath that mask, like he had another eye or something. But no, he’s just a normal person. I don’t know what I was so worried about.

As we walk, the terrain around us seems to get more uneven and mountain-like. The paths we travel down are sometimes narrow or steep, and every now and then we’ll spot a giant tree that seems to stretch up into oblivion. I try to convince Dream that we can climb up a tree and just walk across the top of the maze, but he says that it’s even more dangerous than going through the maze. I want to argue with him, but I know that he’s probably tried it and knows from experience. So I just close my mouth.

* * *

I stretch my arms out as a yawn escapes my mouth. My eyelids are heavy and we’re going to have to rest soon, but we haven’t found a suitable place yet.

As my arms fall back down to my side, I feel my fingers brush up against something. I furrow my brow before I realize what my hand is touching. I immediately pull my hand away and look at Dream. He turns and looks at me.

“What?” He asks.

“Did you just try to hold my _hand?_ ”

Dream’s shoulders hunch up and he takes a step back.

“What? No!”

“Yes you did!” I say, not knowing why I’m making a big deal out of this.

“Hey, you were the one who touched my hand! I thought you--” He puts his face in his hands and groans.

“I did _not_ touch your hand, that was an accident!” My face heats up as I keep talking, my ears practically burning. “And-- And you’ve been flirting with me, I just-- I’m so confused?” It sounds more like a question as I say it.

His shoulders slump a bit, then immediately stiffen. “Look, if you want me to stop, just say so.” The amount of raw emotion and hurt in his voice makes me freeze.

“Wait, Dream, I didn’t mean it that way-”

“Kind of sounds like you did.” He immediately retorts. “Look, I’m sorry that I haven’t seen another person in so long. I’ll just-- I’ll just stop. Will that make you happy?”

_Fuck._

It’s not like I wanted him to stop. I don’t… I’m so confused about what I want. I literally just yelled at him for something I did and now I’ve upset him. Fuck. I’ve already lost the only person I’ve met inside this deadly maze.

“Dream-- Look, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t-” I stumble over my words, and just end up dropping it. He stares back at me, the black dots on his mask boring holes into my head. “I didn’t mean it like-”

Suddenly something howls in the distance. A blood curdling, shrill howl. Both Dream and I freeze in our spots, and my eyes drift to the path behind us.

From the shadows emerges the lean, veiny figure of a dog. But this creature doesn’t look like anything you’d find back home. This beast has two heads sprouting from its neck, both heads foaming at the mouth and lips curled as it approaches, eyes glowing in the darkness like street lamps illuminating our spots. A horrible smell of death and smoke follows the beast as it approaches, ears laid back as it growls at us. And worst of all? Three more of the dogs appear behind it, slowly making their way to us.

“Dream--” I breathe out.

He grabs my hand before I can process anything, and then we’re running. I don’t even process anything that’s happening as the dogs chase us and we run for our lives, totally abandoning any prior thought as I entwine our fingers to keep a grip on him, now deadly afraid something will happen to him.

There’s scrabbling and barking as the dogs chase after us, hot on our heels.

“Are these the hellhounds?” I ask as Dream maneuvers us around a corner and down another path, the dogs not losing us.

“Yep.” Dream quips quickly, holding my hand tight so hard his knuckles are turning white. We leap over a small gap in the ground in sync, but a quick glance over the shoulder shows the pack of hounds quickly crossing the gap and continuing to chase us down.

I let out a yelp as something snaps at my ankle, and I hear the tearing of fabric.

“Fuck these things are fast!” I yell, feeling the ghost of sharp canines against my skin as the air hits the part of my now exposed ankle. “We can’t outrun them!”

“Do we have any other option right now?!” He practically yells. I’m so out of breath, yet he sounds perfectly fine.

“Are we gonna have to fight them?” I ask, feeling yet another hound snap at me, this time at my free hand.

“Preferably not. Look for a place to hide.”

I nod and keep an eye out. I hope to god that we don’t run into a dead end, otherwise we’re done for. And with my luck, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Then I spot one of the giant trees I’ve come across before. I point to it. “There!”

Dream looks at it, then pulls me towards it. We beeline for the tree, and I begin scanning the top of the tree for an area we can hide. But before I can, Dream’s pulling me into some sort of hollow inside the tree that I swear wasn’t there a second ago.

I tumble to the ground as we slide inside. I can hear the barking and snapping from the hell hounds, and look over to the entrance of the hollow, where Dream is kicking at the dogs that try to enter. Eventually after he lands a couple good kicks to their snouts and muzzles, the dogs whine and retreat. For now.

I pant and look over to Dream, who shakily collapses against the other part of the tree. He adjusts the mask on his face and sighs, not seeming as out of breath as me. This guy is so much more in shape than I am.

“Dream,” I find myself saying, grabbing his attention. He looks at me, but says nothing. I can practically see the disappointed look on his face below the mask. “I’m sorry. Really, I am.”

He looks down at the ground, avoiding looking at _me_. “It doesn’t matter.”

I scoot closer to him. “But it obviously does. I hurt your feelings, I’m sorry. I didn’t--” I feel my ears grow hot, but I forge on anyways. “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry.”

He’s quiet for a moment, still avoiding looking at me.

Then he reaches up and takes off his mask, and looks at me. His eyes stare at me, and suddenly I feel so vulnerable and exposed. 

“Then how did you mean it?” He asks simply, voice gentle and somehow… Hopeful.

I inhale sharply as my face heats up and I become aware of the small space between the two of us now. “I’m not-- I’m not very good with talking about my feelings.”

“Feelings?” He asks, blinking a couple times, lips slightly pursed. I find myself staring at them. Fuck.

“Yeah.” I say, but it comes out as more than a squeak than a statement. He chuckles lightly, but if anything it makes the butterflies inside my chest fly more frantically than before. My heart beat is beating so intensely in my ears. “F-- Feelings.”

He goes quiet again, looking me up and down, as if studying me. I do the same, looking at his face and admiring every inch of it, not knowing when I’ll see it again. Suddenly we’re even closer than before, and I can feel his breath on his face.

_Fuck._

“You can hold my hand, if you want.” I suddenly blurt out, not really knowing why I said it.

He chuckles again, louder this time, his eyes crinkling a bit. “Okay.” He says, brushing a piece of my hair behind my ear, his fingers ghosting over my lips.

And that’s enough to make me break, the dam breaking as the pressure of the water behind it too much.

My lips slide against his, my eyes fluttering shut. I feel him stiffen against me for a moment, and suddenly panic rises in my chest. What if he doesn’t kiss me back? What if I’ve misinterpreted everything and just ruined the only friendship I’ve had in this hellhole?

Then he presses his lips against mine as a hand carefully runs through my hair. I breathe out through my nose in relief and my hands fumble with the clothing of his shirt, wanting to pull him impossibly closer, because I’ve never wanted anything more than this very moment.

When we part it’s not for long, because we’re both leaning back in, unsure of who is pulling back in first. And I can’t believe I’m kissing him, even though we’re both in a deadly maze and there’s probably deadly dogs outside waiting to tear our limbs apart and I came in here to look for my best friend, but right now all that matters is that I’m kissing him and he’s kissing me.

It’s new. It’s nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not very good at writing kissing, so i apologize for the next few chapters lol
> 
> if you've enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos, i really appreciate it! <3
> 
> word count: 4310


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